While I don’t suggest that hanging out in bars is the best way to spend one’s time, it is certainly a great place to learn about life and human nature. People are more apt to talk to strangers, share stories, and give advice — while this human connection might be…

In my daily moment titled “Seasons without a Toilet,” I made an unfair comment about selling our paradise on the ridge to Chicago folks. I suggested that these new owners spend some time roughing it on the ridge before they desecrate this land high on the ridge in the driftless…

For the past several months, I lived on a property that does not have “indoor plumbing.” We have electricity, wi-fi, and water. The water, however, is a well that we drilled in the fall so we have water access. There is no plumbing to the 400-square foot cabin that we…

Social media…I don’t know…I got an announcement on Facebook that a person too young to die did so unexpectedly. That is what the obituary said. However, we can all expect to die. It is inevitable. We anticipate our death at some point in life. Some die unexpectedly, we didn’t anticipate…

Daily Moments The View from the Ridge Today is the first time in a long time that I start writing again. The year 2020 was the last time I posted any thoughts, and here it is 2022. In those two years, I moved from a large high school teaching English…

Now I don’t typically think of myself as an old dog much less one that learns new tricks. But thinking about portfolio assessment, looking at crates of paper portfolios in my classroom, and hearing my students’ concerns about environmental health, leaves me feeling old and tired and thinking a new…

Today, I realized two things about who I am and what I do. One: Who I am and what I do really isn’t all that important in the big picture of life. Two: Who I am and what I do are very important in the big picture of life. …

I have not yet experienced the empty nest syndrome since I have one more fledgling not quite ready for flight. And like birds in nature, we do everything we can to keep our young safe and well-cared for until they fly into the next stages of life. …

During the day when I drive, I often take note on how many dead animals I see en route. Deer, coon, occasional coyote, cats, and the opossum. While tracking dead animals isn’t funny, I break up the morbidity with the thought that maybe the opossums I see aren’t really dead…